Extract from Budget debate (Commons): Rolls-Royce - Mar 21

Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP):...I am sure others will touch on this, but we have one other great hope for nuclear: small modular reactors. The reality is that there is not even a regulator-approved design in the UK for an SMR yet, but somehow Rolls-Royce says it could have them operational by 2029. It is the same rhetoric and the same mistakes, over and over again. In reality, each SMR will cost roughly £2 billion, so they are hardly a cheap alternative source of energy generation. If SMRs are so attractive, why is the taxpayer being asked to pay half the cost of a prototype and then sign up to a 35-year extortionate deal in terms of strike rates? It makes no sense, if it was so commercially viable...